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Username: Tonya
Post Number: 144
Registered: 07-2006
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Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 04:43 pm: | 
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Sept. 18, 2006, 8:23PM
By TIM PARADIS AP Business Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Merrill Lynch & Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Stanley O'Neal is scheduled to give a deposition in a racial-discrimination lawsuit brought by a black broker in the firm's Nashville office, a lawyer in the case said.
Asked to confirm that an agreement for a deposition had been reached, Merrill spokesman William Halldin declined to comment.
Linda Friedman, a civil-rights lawyer handling the case on behalf of the 61-year-old broker, George McReynolds, said O'Neal's deposition is crucial because, her client contends, the culture of the company allows discrimination in hiring, advancement and compensation.
The deposition of O'Neal, who is also black, is scheduled for Nov. 1, Friedman said.
McReynolds, who works in the firm's private client group, filed the suit in November in Federal court in Illinois. Friedman, of the Chicago law firm Stowell & Friedman, said the firm hopes to seek class-action status for the suit on behalf of about 700 current and former Merrill workers who are black.
Settlement talks collapsed in June after the sides failed to agree on financial compensation. Robert J. McCann, president of Merrill's global private client group, said in a statement at the time that the company's offer was "fair and appropriate."
Friedman said the offer showed the sides didn't "share the same conclusions about the extent of the harm."
McReynolds alleges, among other charges, that blacks were not treated fairly when the clients of departing financial advisers were reassigned to brokers remaining at the company. McReynolds, who joined Merrill in 1983, also alleges that black brokers had a harder time getting in the door and then were subject to a culture of favoritism that made them less likely to remain.
About 370 of the company's nearly 15,000 financial advisers are black. The company employs about 56,000 people over all.
O'Neal joined Merrill in 1986 as vice president of investment banking and, after serving in several posts, became chief executive in December 2002 before adding the role of chairman in April 2003.
Friedman said O'Neal's race is less of an issue now than when he took over the top spot.
"His race no longer matters. You could say that if there was a hope that racial discrimination on Wall Street would end, that when that did not happen it was somewhat more disappointing."
O'Neal's deposition is one of several Stowell & Friedman is seeking. Friedman said the discovery portion of the case is to end in March.
McCann said in the June statement that Merrill's meetings with a group of black employees had prompted the company to begin implementing "a number of diversity initiatives" and that the firm had acknowledged an imperfect history but that it had been "working hard to make real and lasting change."
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Markets
This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4196508.html
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